The Independent Community Group (ICG) - originally known as the "Isleworth Community Group" - was formally launched on 1st January 1994, with around half-a-dozen members and a few more well-wishers and supporters.  It followed two fairly successful local election campaigns in support of Ivybridge resident Tom Reader on an independent "Isleworth Community" ticket.

It represented a coming together of various, in some senses quite disparate individuals who had learned the hard way that the people of Isleworth were never going to be permitted to have a voice of their own while the politicians controlled every aspect of our community life and refused to liaise or consult with anybody outside their own circle of friends and appointees.

The aim of the ICG was to unite the community by building a vibrant community organisation - membership of which was open to anyone, irrespective of political, social or ethnic background - and one which acted outside the influence of any of the political groups.

Our aim is to establish a system of total democracy in which the people will make the decisions and the vested interests of party politics will play no part.  This doesn't mean, of course, that people who are members of political parties will be excluded from the process.  It simply means that everybody should be allowed to get involved and have a say, rather than be excluded because they don't support or belong to the sect which just happened to have won the previous local election.

In order to run the movement efficiently on a day-to-day basis, the ICG elects a Committee each year at its Annual General Meeting, which acts as the Group's executive.  Membership of the Committee has varied between five and ten.  At present there are eight Committee members.

Membership of the ICG is open automatically to any local resident.  At the time of going to press our membership stands at a little under 1,500.  We have six elected councillors in the wards of Isleworth and Syon and form part of the new administration at the London Borough of Hounslow, where we hold two seats on the ruling Executive. 

In recent years our activity has extended considerably beyond our original catchment area of  Isleworth and we are now also active in Brentford and parts of Hounslow.

The ICG has no formal link with any political party, nor with any other electoral group.  However, as we have demonstrated with our participation in the new council administration we are willing to work with members of any democratic party who uphold the principle of placing the interests of the community before narrow sectional or political interests.

In our local area we maintain an occasional dialogue with individual members of all three of the major parties, but we would never as a matter of principle follow the political agenda of any of them.  We are an independent, non-political community action group.

The ICG does not consider itself to be anywhere on the so-called "political spectrum".  Instead, we see our role as one which acts outside any of the narrow dogmas of the political sects and to provide a voice at all times for the views of our community, which rarely follow a set ideological line.

We are socialist in that the principle of equality is fundamental to our outlook.  We are conservative in the sense that we wish to conserve that which is good about our community life.  We are liberal in that we believe in freedom of expression and of the individual, provided that that individual's freedom does not impinge upon the rights and liberties of others.  And we are "green" because we recognise our need as a community to live in harmony with nature and seek therefore to protect our local environment.

We believe that our cause rises above sterile party politics and we have no intention of allowing ourselves to be pigeon-holed as "left-wing", "right-wing", or even "centre".

The objective of the Independent Community Group is to rebuild the community spirit of the area by returning to our local people the power to make and to enforce decisions on issues which affect their everyday lives, and the means where necessary to change things for the better of the community as a whole.

COUNCILLORS' SURGERIES

THE ICG currently has six councillors - Phil Andrews, Dr. Genevieve Hibbs and Paul Fisher in Isleworth, and Caroline Andrews, Shirley Fisher and Jon Hardy in Syon.